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Bath Salts Being Used To Get People High

Brands Like; Cloud 9, Ivory Wave Are Being Ingested

A warning is going out to parents about a new form of substance abuse. People are now beginning to ingest bath salts to get high.

The salts are sold by brand names such as Cloud 9 and Ivory Wave, but it's the chemical mephedrone that is ingested orally or nasally, that is reportedly getting users high with an experience similar to that of using cocaine or methamphetamine.

The chemical is known to cause an elevated mood and decreased hostility, but it has also been called very dangerous.

In one Internet posting, a writer described the experience as: "Your heart races and it's hard on the kidneys."  Another wrote, "I've been up all night and I'm still up."

"It's very popular in Europe," said Dr. Miguel Fernandez, medical director of the South Texas Poison Control Center. "It may be starting to catch on around here." Fernandez said the chemical can do serious harm.

"(It could) raise your blood pressure, it could raise your heart rate, it hypes you up," Fernandez said. "But it can also make you hallucinate to the point where you're not really sure what you're doing."